Ben and Streek: Clone Saga Ch. 05

The first thing that Streek became aware of was the throbbing pain in her skull. The second thing was the painfully bright light around her. "Uuuuggghhh!!" she moaned as she moved her hand up to her sore head.

She was lying in bed and there was something warm and soft pressing against her. Slowly she dared to open her eyes, the bright room was her quarters on the Avatari, she couldn't remember getting there.

She moved, trying to get up and instantly regretted it. The sheet was half over her naked body and she looked next to her and was surprised to see Ben sleeping naked next to her.

She was so surprised she fell off the bed with a thud. Streek let out another moan, she had been badly hung-over before but couldn't recall a time when she was this bad, in fact she couldn't recall much at all.

Streek slowly sat up, still cursing how bright the room was. She felt a wave of nausea wash over her, and wondered if she would have to get up and quickly find the toilet to throw up in, but after a little while the nausea passed.

She looked at Ben, who was just starting to stir, she was lying there on her side with her messed up, short, blonde hair and her big, pale boobs jutting out in front of her and small patch of blonde pubic hair around her groin.

Ben let out a moan, "Urrghh, turn the damn lights off!". She slowly opened her eyes and then propped herself up on her elbow looking down at Streek.

"Your naked." she said.

"Yeah, so are you, and you're in my bed."

"Oh" said Ben looking down at her naked body. "...Did we... uh... fool around last night?"

The door opened and Streek reflexively covered her naked breasts. Makita came in carrying a silver tray.

"Oh, hey dudes! You're finally awake." said the android in her monotone voice.

"Dudes now is it?" said Streek, dropping her arms again.

"Or Dudettes, whatever. The doc said you'd be feelin' bummed out so this should totally help." Makita passed both of them a glass of fizzy, orange liquid.

"Thanks, what is it?" asked Ben.

"Electrolytes, Rehydrolytes and vitamins and stuff."

Streek took a gulp, it had a sweet, citrusy flavour and wasn't too bad. "Mak, did you see me and Bernie getting ...uh ...intimate, last night?"

"Nah dude, I was tinkering in the engine room most the night, I just saw you two sleeping."

"What's the time?" asked Ben.

"Fourteen hundred and twenty three dude."

"Whoa, we must have had an all-night bender."

"Maybe I should just crawl back into bed for the rest of the day!" said Streek

"Come on in lover." said Ben patting the bed, "...There's plenty of room."

"Uh, the doc wants to see you both. Why don't you have a shower, and I'll cook you dudettes some breakfast."

Streek sighed, "Allright then, give me a hand up will ya!"

Soon Ben and Streek were showered and dressed and were in the ships' mess, eating the breakfast spread that Makita had fried up for them, including eggs, ham, beans, toast, hash browns and orange juice. Streek was feeling a little better but still had a bad head-ache and thought the lights were way too bright.

Dr. Arnott entered the room, he had changed since last night and was wearing his little dark grey jump-suit and was carrying a compact TAB.

"Morning Doctor." said Streek.

"No, it's afternoon actually, how are you feeling Lisa?"

"Pretty bad actually."

"Yes, it appears you're both paying the price for a little over-indulgence."

"Yeah, we've been hung-over a few times before. Why aren't the nanobots stopping me from feeling sick?"

"The Xenoform Nanobots are complicated things. Technically we are mildly poisoning ourselves when we consume alcohol. They could easily neutralize the alcohol molecules before they have any effect on us, but it seems they make an exception and allow us to become intoxicated, and experience all that comes with it."

"Yeah it would suck if we couldn't get drunk, but the hang-over I could do without."

"Yeah, totally." agreed Ben.

"I might go and see Mia soon, see how she pulled up." said Streek.

"I'm afraid that's not possible right now." said Dr. Arnott.

"Why?"

"Because we're currently travelling through Hyper-Warp, on our way to New Heidi."

Ben put down her piece of toast. "Oh, we launched?"

"Indeed, we left the station at zero seven hundred this morning. I'm sorry for leaving without your knowledge, but the two of you were unresponsive."

"So you heard from your man then? You got word of my ship, or Ben and Streek, or the Cloning Pod?"

"I can answer your questions and debrief you a little later when your feeling better if you prefer."

"No, I wanna know now!"

"The Clubber Lang has been seized by the Federation. The Cloning Pod has not been recovered yet and Benjamin Anders, Stephen McKenzie and all their clones have avoided authorities and still remain at large. It's the best we could hope for. We still have a window to find your sires and hence find the Cloning Pod before the Federation does."

"Are you sure they're still on New Heidi?" asked Streek.

The doctor tapped at his TAB and brought up some holographic news footage that showed scores of Federation ships, large and small orbiting the blue, green and brown planet.

"Two days ago the Federation ordered a blockade on New Heidi. They're not letting anyone in or out of the planet. They want to keep the Alien technology contained until they find it."

"So how are we going to get there?" asked Streek.

"You're flying in the galaxies' most advanced Stealth-Ship remember, slipping through the blockade and getting on the planet won't be a problem. Once we get there however, there will be a strong Federation presence, it will be very dangerous for us to operate. We will need to keep a low profile."

"You will want us to find our Sires, right?" asked Ben.

"Yes, have you been to New Heidi before?"

"A couple of times, just passing through. We drank at some spacer bars and traded a little."

"Do you have friends or relatives there? Anyone who you would trust to harbour you?"

"Nah, no one like that."

"It wouldn't be hard for you to get into the mindset of Benjamin Anders, what would you have done with the Cloning pod?"

"I told him he should have jettisoned it before we got to New Heidi." said Streek.

"I wouldn't have done that, I would have wanted to sell it on, I knew I could make a nice profit from it."

"Any idea where you would have sold it?" asked Dr. Arnott.

"Maybe a backroom deal at a bar, that's how I acquired it, or I might have sought out a black-market fence."

The Doctor tapped his TAB again and brought up a 3D map of a fat, round continent that zoomed into a large city by its coast.

"Your ship was seized at Rodfern, one of the planets larger cities. The city is so built up, there are lower levels, forever in the shadows. It's where the poor and forgotten citizens dwell, as well as those who want to stay hidden in the shadows. I think this is a likely place for your Sires and fellow clones to be hiding."

"...I want the two of you to ask around at bars and black market stores, see if you can locate them. I will run my scanners and see if I can find them. But it won't be like Port Redland, there's a million-fold more bodies to sort through."

"...You must be careful though, even without Federation patrols about, the under-city can be a dangerous place, judging by these crime statistics."

"We can handle ourselves now." said Streek. After her training session with Mia, she felt like she could take on anything.

"Makita, would you mind passing those boxes in the corner to Bernie and Lisa."

"Yeah, no problem dude." The android picked up some large boxes that were sitting in the corner and placed one in front of Ben and another in front of Streek.

"What's this?" said Ben.

"Open it and see." said Dr. Arnott. The girls both lifted the lids off their boxes. There were a bunch of different items in there. Streek lifted out a black holster with a hand gun inside it, she pulled the black and silver pistol out and felt the weight of it in her hand.

"Nice, is this really for me?"

"Yes, it's a Wik-15, fifteen millimetres, fifteen rounds per clip."

Streek straightened her arm and pointed it at the wall, looking down the barrel. "Cool!" Ben was holding an identical gun.

"It won't do you much good against armour I'm afraid, but it's one of the most accurate hand guns around."

"Wow, you got me a new TAB too." said Ben. Streek put her gun down and picked up her TAB from the box, it was more compact than her old TAB, a pocket-sized device.

"That's to be used for communication and information gathering." said Dr. Arnott. "...Not video games and pornography."

Streek looked at him and gave him a half smile, he knew them too well since he scanned their minds.

"I have integrated some powerful, short-range scanners into them, they should come in handy."

Streek looked what else there was in the box, she held up a high quality looking knife in its black sheath.

"You don't need to take that if you don't want to Lisa, I know you were stabbed with your own knife last time."

"No, that's fine. It won't happen again!" said Streek. She slid it out and examined it.

"It's a good quality vibroblade, can cut through many things." said Dr. Arnott.

"Thank you, it's like my birthday or something!"

"I can't have the two of you going into the field under-equipped."

Streek looked at the bottom of the box, there was some dark blue, folded up clothing and small black pouch. Streek examined the pouch and found it stocked with scores of credit slips of different denominations.

"You will be needing that." said Dr. Arnott "...Just let me know if you need more."

"Then I'll leave you two to your mid-afternoon breakfast and go and prepare your mind-write. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask."

"Thanks Doc." said Ben as the old man left the room.

Streek turned her TAB on and saw that she had a message. The text read "from Mia", Streek opened it up straight away.

The young womans' holographic head appeared over the device. Her vibrant red hair was tied back in a pony-tail again and she still had a black eye and bumps and bruises on her face, she looked tired.

"Hey Streek!" said the recording, "...Grandpa gave me your new TAB-ID, I hope your getting this. That was some wild night eh?. You and Bernie are both a lot of fun when you're drunk, and some of the things you told me ...wow!." What the hell did I tell you?

"...So, you're off on your mission now. Me and Zac will be going out in the field shortly as well. Just remember the safety protocols are disabled out there. Remember what you learnt in our little training session and don't get yourself into trouble. And remember what I said about Grandpa, I meant it! No doubt he'll be watching out for you, so you better watch out for him."

Then Zacs' voice came through the TABs' speakers. "Mia, are you gunna give me a hand with these crates or what?!"

"Yeah, just give me a second dick-head. Look I gotta get going. Tell Blondie not to get herself killed, she still owes me fifty dollars. I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you again, or maybe you and me could fight each other, that should be fun. Good luck out there Streek, I'll see you when I see you."

Mias' head faded away as the message stopped playing. She's so damn pretty! Thought Streek. Ben had been listening in on the message and was smiling at Streek.

"What? ...Mia says not to let yourself get killed." said Streek.

"What the hell do I owe her fifty bucks for?"

"beats me!"

"Someone's got the hots for the Ranga! I remember that much!"

"No, she's just a friend."

"You're a bad liar. You're crushing over her, big time. Were you thinking of her when you had sex with me last night?"

"No! ...I mean ...You don't even know if we had sex last night, we probably just passed out drunk before anything happened."

"Yeah, sure, okay." said Ben grinning.

"She's straight anyway."

"Oh I see. You're hoping to slip her the sausage once you become a man again. eh Streeky boy?"

Streek blushed, "Shut up bimbo!. What about Zac?, what's your boyfriend gunna say when you're turned back into a man?"

"Dunno, should be interesting to find out." laughed Ben.

Six hours later Streek was sitting on the lounge in the main Octagonal room. Her head-ache had gone but her gut was feeling quite unsettled, it was nerves.

They would be coming up on the New Heidi system soon, and she was nervous. The Doctor had a lot of faith in her and Ben. She hoped that she wouldn't let him down, or herself, finding the Cloning Pod was very important to her as well.

She was wearing the new dark blue jump-suit and her orange jacket Makita made her over that, in order to conceal her holstered Wik-15. She liked these clothes, they were like what Mia was wearing when they first met.

She needed to get used to the weight of the hand gun under her breast, she had barely got used to the weight of her breasts.

After her mind-write she had become and expert on using the Wik-15, she knew every component, it's effective range, it's recoil power and penetration value. She knew she was deadly with it, though she had never fired a single shot.

Her new vibroblade knife was tucked into her left boot, she knew she was deadly with that as well. Her TAB was in one of her leg pockets, and a couple of extra fifteen millimetre clips were in another pocket.

Streek brushed aside her fringe. After the mind-write, Dr. Arnott suggested that Ben get her hair restyled by Makita. The Feds had her image and it wouldn't hurt to change her appearance a little.

Ben managed to talk Streek into getting a white streak through her dark brown hair, "a streak for Streek" she said. So now part of her fringe was distinctly white, Ben said it looked cool, but Streek wasn't entirely convinced it didn't look stupid.

She hadn't seen what Makita did to Bens' hair yet, she hoped it didn't look too ridiculous. Streek leant back on the soft chair, she wished she had a joint, that would help her relax. She got out her TAB and started looking over the layout of Rodfern again.

The door opened and Ben walked in, "Well, what do you think Streek?"

Streek looked up, Bens' hair was much longer now, it was probably down to her waist, but it was braided and the braids were looped behind her neck, her sandy blonde hair had become a much lighter blonde, almost white. She looked more feminine and pretty, like a Princess.

"Wow, not bad." said Streek.

"Yeah I like it, Mak is quite talented. You should have her lengthen your hair as well."

"No thanks, I'm fine." Ben was wearing a jump-suit like hers, although it was a rusty red colour and she wasn't wearing a jacket, her Wik-15 was holstered in a special pocket at the front of her waist. The jump-suit fitted well enough to show her generous curves and large breasts.

The chiming sounded around them, indicating they would drop out of hyper-warp in five minutes. "Well, this is it." said Ben "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready!"

Ben and Streek sat in the cockpit behind Dr. Arnott and Makita as the Avatari dropped out of Hyper-Warp and the stars appeared on the large three-sixty degree view screen.

The Doctor put his Star Ship into stealth mode and the android piloted it toward the planet New Heidi. As they got closer they could see several Federation Cruisers in orbit and many other smaller Federation ships moving about.

Makita tried to keep as much distance from the ships as she could, but as they got closer they grew larger and larger. Streek could feel her pulse quicken as they approached the planet, one of those huge cruisers could decimate the Avatari.

"Look over there." said Dr. Arnott, pointing out a Cruiser, "...That's the Federation Flag-ship, the 'Resolve'. There's likely to be some high ranking officers aboard."

"Are you sure they can't see us?" said Streek.

"If they can see us, we'd know about it."

"Right."

"Is there a ship called 'Toblerone' here?" asked Ben.

Dr. Arnott checked his screen, "No, why do you ask?"

"No reason."

Soon they had the Federation ships behind them and flames washed over the ship as they entered the planets' atmosphere. Streek could see the sun shining in the ocean and made out the fat continent Dr. Arnott had shown them earlier.

It got larger in the view screen as they approached, and soon Streek could make out the city of Rodfern.

They approached the city, and Streek could see the activity of many flying cars and trucks. Although it was around twenty one hundred SGT, it was mid-afternoon at Rodfern. Streeks' body clock was messed up from her all night bender anyway.

Streek could see the many flashing signs and adverts playing out on large screens around the tall buildings. Makita skilfully piloted the ship past many different buildings and vehicles as they went down into the shadows of the Undercity.

Soon she found a relatively clear platform and smoothly settled the ship down onto it.

"Okay, we're here." said Dr. Arnott. He turned to the girls "...You're both clear what the mission is?, Staying undetected by the Federation is our top priority. Discover any information you can about Benjamin Anders, Stephen McKenzie or the Cloning Pod."

"Yeah, we know" said Ben.

Dr. Arnott got something from his pocket and handed them to Ben. It was a couple of hard copies of photographs of the male Ben and Streek.

"These should help you when you're asking around."

"Better than asking if they've seen a male version of me, where did you get these images?"

"From the Deep Brain Scan you took before."

"Oh ...wait, you haven't been looking at images of when me and Streek when we were showering together have you?"

"Oh please.. I'm the clone of an eighty year old scientist. I'd get more exited looking at your cellular structure than looking at you naked."

"Hey, stop ogling my cellular structure you dirty old man!" said Ben.

Streek laughed.

"I know the two of you can defend yourselves now, but please try to avoid conflict, it is likely to draw the attention of the Federation."

"We understand." said Ben as she pocketed the photos.

"Stay together, and keep reporting back to me, even if you don't make any progress, and if you're in trouble, contact me right away."